WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States yesterday called the case of an 8-year-old Saudi girl married  to a man 50 years older a “clear and unacceptable violation of  human rights,” in a rare criticism of its oil-producing ally.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the United  States has frequently raised the issue of child marriages with  Saudi officials, although he could not say whether this  specific case had been raised.

A court in the town of Unaiza in Saudi Arabia upheld for  the second time last week the marriage of the Saudi girl to a  man who is about 50 years her senior on condition he does not  have sex with her until she reaches puberty.

“Child marriage is a clear and unacceptable violation of  human rights, in our view,” Wood told reporters in Washington.  “U.S. officials at all levels frequently raise with the Saudi  government our human rights concerns, especially those dealing  with … children and child marriages.”

On Tuesday, the Saudi justice minister was quoted as saying  Riyadh plans to regulate the marriages of young girls after the  court refused to nullify the 8-year-old’s marriage.

Saudi Arabia is a patriarchal society that applies an  austere form of Sunni Islam that bans unrelated men and women  from mixing and gives fathers the right to wed their sons and  daughters to whoever they deem fit.

The justice ministry aims “to put an end to arbitrariness  by parents and guardians in marrying off minor girls,” Justice  Minister Mohamed al-Issa told al-Watan newspaper, partially  owned by members of the royal family.

The minister’s comments suggested the practice of marrying  off young girls would not be abolished. The regulations will  seek to “preserve the rights, fending off blights to end the  negative aspects of underage girls’ marriage,” he said.